Stephan, I respectfully disagree with your statement that WC will be mistreated because it's a "cheap pet". I do not think price has anything do do with neglect. People will pay $1500 for a chiwiniepoodoodle (whatever) designer breed dog, then dump it in a shelter once they get tired of it. People will spend hundreds of dollars on an exotic reptile and a complete set up, and then their "pet" will slowly starve to death because they only remember to feed it once a month. When it eventually dies, they will shrug and say "Oh well, it was just a lizard, I can replace it." At any rate, a typical garter only runs $10-$20, and compared to other reptiles their set up is pretty low-cost and low-maintenance. It's a cheap pet weather you buy it or catch it. It's all down to the owners belief/attitude about pet care.

I think the main con for WC would be parasites, as well as the issue of weather or not the snake can adjust to captivity. Obviously there is also a large difference between catching and keeping a few individuals who adjust well to captivity, as opposed to going out and collecting every specimen you can possibly find.

I have never purchased a truly captive bred reptile, so I cannot comment other than I would think quality would depend on the breeder. From a reputable breeder, you should be getting a healthy, disease & parasite free snake, and you should be able to find out the lineage and genetic information. From a poor quality pet store or a poor quality breeder, you may get a malnourished or sickly snake, parasites, or poor genetic quality.

For me personally, when it comes to my states native species of snakes, I would prefer to go out into the field and harvest them. There are actually three species of snake that I would like to collect from the wild, aside from garters- smooth green snake, black hills red-bellied snake, and the yellow bellied racer. I have captured several racers, but released them because they did not adjust. The other two species I have never seen and I think will be a challenge to find. In WY, no permit is required for collection, keeping, selling, buying, or trading native snake species, with the exception of the pale milk snake, the rubber boa, and the midget faded rattlesnake.

I have caught wild reptiles, amphibians, insects, invertebrates ect my entire life. As a child I would catch (and 99.9% of the time release) hermit crabs, jelly fish, garters, anoles, skinks, turtles, gekos, taratulas, horned lizzards, crawdads, bullfrogs, leopard frogs, tree frogs, wood frogs, salamanders, toads and even (unknowingly at the time) a gila monster. I think that the experience of having close encounters with these creatures has given me a deeper apriciation for the need for habitat conservation as well as a deeper apriciation and love for wildlife of all shapes and sizes. I share my love and enthusiasm for wildlife every year at a local elementary school, by doing a Wildlife Exploration presentation. This year my WC vagrans will be joining the presentation and I will be doing a little highlight on reptiles & anphibians.